RICHLAND, Wash. –
Five researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been named to a comprehensive list of the world's most referenced scientists.

The researchers are named in Thomson Reuters' Highly Cited Researchers 2014. The list includes more than 3,200 researchers whose scientific reports were in the top 1 percent of papers receiving the most references, also known as citations, for their subject field and year of publication between 2002 and 2012. Scientific research papers reference previously published research when the earlier research is noteworthy and respected.

The five PNNL researchers and their most cited subject areas are:

Jun Liu: chemistry, engineering and materials science

Alex Guenther: geosciences

Phil Rasch: geosciences

Yuyan Shao: engineering

Yuehe Lin: chemistry (Washington State University professor, has joint appointment with PNNL)

The list also includes a former PNNL researcher who is now at the University of Wyoming. Xiaohong Liu was named one of the most-cited scientists in geosciences.

Click here to see the full list. For more information on how the list was compiled, click here.

Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. Founded in 1965, PNNL employs 4,300 staff and has an annual budget of more than $1 billion. It is managed by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. As the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information on PNNL, visit the PNNL News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.